Del. Brenda Pogge will return to the Virginia House of Delegates to represent the 96th District after defeating challenger Brandon Waltrip in the general election, according to unofficial results.

Vote totals from the Virginia Department of Elections show Pogge, a Republican, leads the ballot count with 12,004 votes, or 61.08 percent, as of 10 p.m. Waltrip, an independent, has earned 7,600 votes, or 38.67 percent.

Republican Brenda Pogge has represented parts of James City and York counties in the House of Delegates since 2008, and come November, she wants voters to send her back to Richmond for another term.

She formally announced her intent to seek re-election Thursday for the 96th House seat, which encompasses all of James City County besides the Jamestown, Kingsmill and Grove areas. It includes all of Upper York County, along with Yorktown, Seaford and Dare.

RICHMOND — By the narrowest of margins, the state Senate on Monday killed a House bill that would have required Virginia’s attorney general to defend any state law whose constitutionality is challenged.

Proposed by Del. Brenda L. Pogge (R-James City), the measured appeared to be aimed at Attorney General Mark R. Herring (D), who last year declared the state’s ban on same-sex marriage unconstitutional and joined two same-sex couples in asking a federal court to strike it down. Months later, the Supreme Court allowed same-sex marriages to take place in Virginia when it refused to take up a lower court ruling that overturned the ban.

Being an elected Democrat is treacherous business these days when it comes to the subject of US-Israeli relations. On one hand, Israel is a beacon of democratic pluralism, tolerance and modernity in a very rough neighborhood, and an extremely close American ally. On the other, Barack Obama and company detest Benjamin Netanyahu, whose planned speech to Congress has become a target of manufactured White House's ire. Plus, a sizable element of your core base is effectively pro-Hamas. So what's a Virginia Democrat to do when his chamber is voting on a pro-Israel resolution? Run away -- twice -- to avoid going on the record in either direction. The item's language was symbolic in nature, and seemingly innocuous: